


One of Repetition

by enmity



Category: Tales of Series, Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Gen, friendship w/ a side of pathetic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-13 02:59:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15354744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enmity/pseuds/enmity
Summary: “I think,” started Anise, between warm, careful sips of vegetable broth, “she hates me.”“Who does?” said Dist, glancing quickly as Anise ducked her head low and shushed him, giddy and conspiring and serious all at once over her bowl of soup. Her spoon clattered.“Shh! Gloomietta might hear,” she said, not turning around to check, and pressed an urgent finger to her lips. “Don’t tell me, but I think she’s staring.”





	One of Repetition

“I think,” started Anise, between warm, careful sips of vegetable broth, “she hates me.”

“Who does?” said Dist, glancing quickly as Anise ducked her head low and shushed him, giddy and conspiring and serious all at once over her bowl of soup. Her spoon clattered.

“Shh! Gloomietta might hear,” she said, not turning around to check, and pressed an urgent finger to her lips. “Don’t tell me, but I think she’s _staring_.” Anise shook her head, sending her pigtails bobbing, and wrinkled her nose imperiously. “After I told her that was weird! Ugh. Some people.”

She was really such a kid. Fixing her doll had been a slip-up, a momentary aberrance, and he’d learned by now not to look at her for too long, because he’d buried that part of himself years ago, six miles deep under the Keterburg snow. Was supposed to have, anyway, and— and there was no point trying to dig it back out. Anything left that long in the cold could only be shriveled and rotten and _dead_ by now, and that was how Jade had wanted it. And honesty had never been Dist’s strong suit anyway, so.

“Oh.” He folded his arms and tucked his chin with effortless grace. She sat some distance over Anise’s shoulder, but the withering look Arietta pointed to the back of the other girl’s head could be seen from miles away. He chewed on his mushy peas. “I thought that was a well-established fact.”

“Dist,” Anise said, in that deceptive, cloying way she did, and leaned over, elbows knocking against the table. The bottom of her shoes didn’t even reach the floor. “You’re one of the God-Generals too, aren’t you? Shouldn’t you know something useful? Like why Gloomietta hates me so much.” She blinked as if distracted. “Or her favorite food, or song, or… Anything.”

When Dist didn’t reply immediately, she frowned. “Never mind. I shoulda known better than to expect so much from someone who barely leaves his lab.”  

“Yes, well, my research is so demanding that even I, a genius, barely has a chance to rest— let alone, as you’ve rather unkindly suggested several times, ‘go outside’,” he said, affronted, and started mumbling. “So many Cheagles and so little time…”

“Did you say something?” She raised a suspicious eyebrow.

“Nothing you’d understand,” he shrugged, to which she stuck her tongue out at him.

“I don’t know why I even bother with you,” she said, sounding flippant, as though Dist hadn’t heard those exact same words from someone else before.

Anise finished the rest of her meal, and she was scraping the chair and getting up to leave when Dist spoke up.

“Does it bother you? That Arietta seems to hate you, I mean.”

“She always seems so sad,” she whispered, sitting back down. She brushed her bangs out of her eyes, and regarded Dist with a long, blank look. “Gloomy and lonely. That’s why I kept calling her that. I know she has her monster friends, but… what about people?”

Distantly he thought of winter-blanketed days, snapshots of moments as fleeting as snowflakes, running around the plaza as he chased after a snickering Jade, who’d always seemed one step out of reach, even back then. He’d stumble and fall and always get back up in time to see the distance between them double and triple, the frosted air and the sight of Jade’s elusive back and the ringing sound of a laugh reserved for Saphir’s failures. And yet he’d never stopped chasing. He’d been a dumb kid then. What was his excuse now?

 _I don’t get it,_ he’d told Jade once, in the hallway after classes let out. He’d tried to keep the resentment from seeping into his voice. _You’re good at everything and you never look happy about it. You always look so lonely_ , he’d said after a moment, and Jade had only turned away and laughed, saying something about Saphir imagining things and needing his vision checked. And Dist had only believed it meant his friend was too embarrassed to admit the truth. _Ha, ha! That’s why you have me, right?_

“It’s a little pitiful, really,” Anise added, a little forceful. A faint shade of embarrassment rose to her cheeks. “So I thought… well, it wouldn’t hurt to…”

Silent for a moment, Dist poked the fork at his emptied plate.

“Dist! Dist,” she called. Tokunaga’s stubby limbs flailed from where it was latched to Anise’s back. “Anyone home? Are you spacing out again? Gosh, you’re so hopeless!”

She was really such a kid. And Arietta might be a strange little girl, but she wasn’t Jade. Life had simply been unfair to him, and him alone. And he supposed that was all.

“I’m sorry,” Dist said, with a glamorous sweep of his hand. “Ha! Did I make you worry? I was merely distracted by my own intelligence for a moment.”

She seemed unimpressed by it. “I’m leaving,” she said, picking up her tray and rising to her feet once more. “I can’t let Ion wait for me.”

“You should just try talking to her,” he said, as she turned on her heel to take her leave. He placed a hand on his chin. “She might push you away, but… I think a little effort goes a long way.”

“That’s surprisingly thoughtful coming from you, Dist. I’ll keep that in mind.” Anise looked left, and then right. “She already left, but, I think I’ll try to talk to her later today. Even if I don’t have a lot of confidence in that Gloomietta.”

“I’ve always been a sensitive, sensible soul,” replied Dist, without missing a beat. “Anise?”

The girl looked at him. “I’m not carrying your tray for you, Dist.”

“Good luck,” he said.

“Thanks.”

A smile spread across her round face, and he watched as she walked away: Tokunaga bouncing on her back, growing more and more distant as she stepped outside and into the sunlight, leaving him sitting alone in the shadowy corner of the mess hall. He spent some time there before remembering that certainly, he had better things to do than sit around and mull over— ghosts, whether metaphorical or literal— unimportant, trifling thoughts that he decried as being banal sentimentalism.

Like his research, for example. Of course.

But still, as he regarded the now-empty seat opposite him, he couldn’t help but remind himself that it wasn’t as if this was something he was unaccustomed to, anyway.  

**Author's Note:**

> i read the gaiden and it made me laugh so i wrote this, even if it was originally intended to be something else asdf;g. it was fun!


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